|
 Mozart,
Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-91), Austrian composer, a centrally important
composer of the classical era, and one of the most inspired composers
in Western musical tradition. Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg,
and baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, he
was educated by his father, Leopold Mozart, who was concertmaster
in the court orchestra of the archbishop of Salzburg and a celebrated
violinist, composer, and author. II. Mozart's Musically Precocious
Childhood Print section By the age of six Mozart had become an accomplished
performer on the clavier, violin, and organ and was highly skilled
in sight-reading and improvisation. Five short piano pieces composed
by Mozart when he was six years old are still frequently played. In
1762 Leopold took Wolfgang on the first of many successful concert
tours through the courts of Europe. During this period Wolfgang composed
sonatas for the harpsichord and violin (1763), a symphony (1764),
an oratorio (1766), and the opera buffa La finta semplice (The Simple
Pretense, 1768). In 1769 Mozart was appointed concertmaster to the
archbishop of Salzburg, and later in the same year, at La Scala (Milan,
Italy), he was made a chevalier of the Order of the Golden Spur by
the pope. He also composed his first German operetta, Bastien und
Bastienne, in the same year. At the age of 14 he was commissioned
to write a serious opera. This work, Mitridate, r� di Ponto (Mithridates,
King of Pontus, 1770), produced under his direction at Milan, completely
established an already phenomenal reputation. The Mozarts returned
to Salzburg in 1771. Hieronymus, count von Colloredo, the successor
to the archbishop of Salzburg, who had died while the Mozarts were
touring Italy, cared little for music. Mozart's appointment at Salzburg,
however, proved to be largely honorary; it allowed ample time for
a prodigious musical output during his next six years, but afforded
little financial security. In 1777 Mozart obtained a leave of absence
for a concert tour and left with his mother for Munich. III. A Difficult
Later Life Print section The courts of Europe ignored the 21-year-old
composer in his search for a more congenial and rewarding appointment.
He traveled to Mannheim, then the musical center of Europe because
of its famous orchestra, in hopes of a post, and there fell in love
with Aloysia Weber. Leopold promptly ordered his son and wife to Paris.
His mother's death in Paris in July 1778, his rejection by Weber,
and the neglect he suffered from the aristocrats whom he courted made
the two years from Mozart's arrival in Paris until his return to Salzburg
in 1779 one of the most difficult periods in his life. While at home
Mozart composed two masses and a number of sonatas, symphonies, and
concertos; these works reveal for the first time a distinctive style
and a completely mature understanding of musical media. The success
of Mozart's Italian opera seria Idomeneo, r� di Creta (Idomeneo, King
of Crete), commissioned and composed in 1781, prompted the archbishop
of Salzburg to invite Mozart to his palace at Vienna. A series of
court intrigues and his exploitation at the hands of the court soon
forced Mozart to leave. In a house in Vienna rented for him by friends,
he hoped to sustain himself by teaching. During this period Mozart
composed a singspiel (a type of German operetta with some spoken dialogue)
called The Abduction from the Seraglio, which was requested by Emperor
Joseph II in 1782. In the same year Mozart married Constanze Weber,
Aloysia's younger sister. Unending poverty and illness harassed the
family until Mozart's death. The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and Don
Giovanni (1787), with librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte, while successful
in Prague, were partial failures in Vienna. From 1787 until the production
of Cos� fan tutte (All Women Do So, 1790, again with a libretto by
Da Ponte), Mozart received no commissions for operas. For the coronation
of Emperor Leopold II in 1791 he wrote the opera seria La clemenza
di Tito (The Clemency of Titus; libretto by Metastasio). His three
great symphonies of 1788�no. 39 in E-flat, no. 40 in G Minor, and
no. 41 in C (the Jupiter)�were never performed under his direction.
While Mozart was working on the singspiel The Magic Flute (1791),
an emissary of a Count Walsegg mysteriously requested a requiem mass.
This work, uncompleted at Mozart's death, proved to be his last musical
effort. He died, presumably of typhoid fever, in Vienna on December
5, 1791; his burial was attended by few friends. The place of his
grave is unmarked. The legend that the Italian composer Antonio Salieri
murdered him is unsupported by reputable scholars. IV. Evaluation
Print section Mozart had an unsuccessful career and died young, but
he ranks as one of the great geniuses of Western civilization. His
large output (more than 600 works) shows that even as a child he possessed
a thorough command of the technical resources of musical composition
as well as an original imagination. His instrumental works include
symphonies, divertimentos, sonatas, chamber music for a number of
instrumental combinations, and concertos; his vocal works consist
mainly of church music and operas. Mozart's creative method was extraordinary,
for his manuscripts show that, although he made an occasional preliminary
sketch of a difficult passage, he almost invariably thought out a
complete work before committing it to paper. His music combines an
Italian taste for clear and graceful melody with a German taste for
formal and contrapuntal ingenuity. Mozart thus epitomizes the classical
style of the 18th century, the goal of which was to be succinct, clear,
and well balanced while at the same time developing ideas to a point
of emotionally satisfying fullness. These qualities are perhaps best
expressed in his concertos, with their dramatic contrasts between
a solo instrument and the orchestra, and in his operas, with their
profound contrasts between different personalities reacting to changing
situations. His operas achieved a new unity of vocal and instrumental
writing; they are marked by subtle characterization and an unusual
use of classic symphonic style in large-scale ensembles.
|
